Conservation, acquisition, and functional impact of sex-biased gene expression in mammals

Abstract

The genetics of sexual dimorphism In mammals, many species exhibit sex-specific phenotypes that differ between males and females. Although attention has been directed to the effects of the X and Y sex chromosomes, we do not understand how sex affects the rest of the genome. Naqvi et al. examined gene expression in 12 tissues in male and female humans, mice, rats, dogs, and cynomolgus macaques and identified diversity in gene expression between the sexes. Examining sex-biased gene expression in human height identified opposing male or female bias. Although conservation of differential sex-specific gene expression among species was observed, specific genes differed in the sexes among species and lineages suggesting the evolution of species- or lineage-specific sex-biased expression. Science , this issue p. eaaw7317